STATES & JURISDICTIONS

California

COCHS is working in support of state and philanthropic efforts to make the most of the opportunities created from two important initiatives: California Assembly Bill 109: Public Safety Realignment, and national Health Reform. California is an early adopter of the PPACA in the form of its Low Income Health Program (LIHP) that includes Medicaid expansion to single adults. COCHS is focused on improving access to behavioral health care for newly eligible individuals who also are affected by realignment of the criminal justice system.

Assembly Bill 109 Public Safety Realignment: With support from the California HealthCare Foundation, COCHS developed projections for the number of young, male criminal offenders who may be newly eligible for Medi-Cal when the PPACA is implemented in 2014. California jurisdictions can start to plan now for how they will improve access to health care for the local jail-involved population under Medi-Cal expansion and/or AB109. For more information about our presentation and data projections, please visit our library.

Senate Bill 695: Medi-Cal: county juvenile detention facilities: COCHS prepared an issue brief on this 2011 California legislation that allows counties to consider participating in Medi-Cal for a portion of the health care services they deliver to youth in juvenile detention centers. SB 695—under specific conditions—allows the provision of Medi-Cal benefits to youth in detention centers who are awaiting adjudication of charges and who are eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

New Jersey

The COCHS New Jersey project continues to provide technical support and training to four jurisdictions and the Office of the Attorney General. In addition to meetings with special interest groups and monthly site visits to jails, the team is developing a set of best practices for correctional health care—the first of its kind—to be applied across the state. Interest groups include community corrections officers, wardens, probation/parole, health providers, administrative offices of the court, UMDNJ.

New York City

COCHS is working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to improve health care efficiencies in the City jail system with the use of Health Information Technology.

New York State

COCHS is working with state corrections and health care agencies and the Office of the Governor regarding access to health care in the community for the jail-involved population; in particular, COCHS is providing guidance on the development of metrics for managed care organizations that enroll individuals from this population in Health Homes.

Rhode Island

COCHS is providing technical assistance to state corrections and health care agencies regarding Medicaid engagement with inmates upon release from prisons and jails.

RESOURCES

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The Unseen Provider: Healthcare in Our Jails is a short documentary that explores the great potential health information exchange (HIE) presents to correctional institutions wanting to achieve continuity of care with community providers. It features Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and Dr. Jeffery Brenner, Director and Founder of Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers.

Issues with Electronic Health Records While COCHS has the perspective that the transparency of electronic health records (EHRs) can often be a human rights tool, especially in reference to injury reporting, it is apparent that there are multiple challenges with this technology. For more information on this matter please see this report from California Healthline.